Robert Fitzmaurice
I view the many stories we have invented to explain our place in the universe to be a profound mixture of the beautiful, the bewildering and the absurd. My paintings, prints and ceramics give these ideas form through matrices of figurative and abstract elements.
I am very interested in how the figure has been represented across cultures and time, especially when the figure appears to the viewer in a frontal stance. I am drawn to instances in medieval and Asian art, as well as 20th century culture. Some kind of encounter is implied that gives me a framework for exploring the relationship between artist, artwork and viewer.
By layering my references in an emblematic manner, and contrasting flatness with three dimensionality, new compound meanings emerge. Across different cultures I find there are many touchpoints which are separated by meaning yet in our globally connected, image-saturated world, singular interpretations are impossible, even if this was the artist's original intent.
These conditions, which operate between constraint and liberation, provide me with a rich set of parameters to work with and for the viewer to meet with on their own terms.
Lived Experience
Robert Fitzmaurice grew up in Coventry, where contrasts between the old and new cathedrals, the history of the blitz and his father's accounts of being a prisoner of war influenced his young imagination. After studying Fine Art in Sunderland he took a studio with Sunderland Artists Group for a year before moving south to take his MFA at Reading University.
Early encounters with the painters John Emanuel and Adrian Heath turned into long term friendships, and their insights into material processes and approaches to abstraction have served as important touchpoints in his own studio practice.
Invention and abstraction of the figure characterises his output. His main discipline is painting but he regularly turns to other media, especially printmaking and sculpture to consider how art can be created and interpreted. He summarises his practice as “working to conjure a presence”.
Selected group exhibitions include Whitworth Young Contemporaries, Manchester; NN Contemporary, Northampton; Creekside, APT Gallery, London, and LichtundFire, New York City. Solo exhibitions include 'Artist of the Day,' Angela Flowers Gallery, London; 'No Eden' Greenham Control Tower, Newbury; and 'No Sudden Moves', West Berkshire Museum.
He lives and works full-time on his art in Reading, Berkshire.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 No Sudden Moves, West Berkshire Museum, Newbury
2021 Relations, Stories, Magic, Nuneaton Museum and Art Gallery
2019 NO EDEN, Greenham Common Control Tower, Newbury
2018 Companion Pieces, no format Gallery, Deptford
2018 SOLDIER, Sandham Memorial Chapel, Burghclere
2017 To & Fro, Peacock Gallery, Reading
2016 The peace which passes..., OHOS, Reading
2013 The Heart’s Long Coast, More Arts, Wokingham
2011 Recent paintings, Meller Merceux Gallery, Oxford
2011 From here on in, Corn Exchange, Newbury
1988 Artist of the Day, Angela Flowers Gallery, London
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026
The Unknown, Lichtundfire, New York
2025
The Edge of Abstraction, The BASE, Thatcham
Small but Mighty, Bankside Gallery, London
Bohemian Rhapsody, Lichtundfire, New York
The Sound of Silence, Lichtundfire, New York
2024
SFSA Drawing Open, no format Gallery, Deptford
2023
Condition Critical, 571 Gallery, Reading
SFSA Drawing Open, no format Gallery, Deptford
2022
38th Annual Open, Southwark Park Galleries, London
SFSA Drawing Open, no format Gallery, Deptford
Altered States, Shaw House, Newbury
Of Geometry and Gods, Side by Side, Sandham Memorial Chapel, Burghclere
2021
TILT 2021, Hoxton Gallery, London
Absent Authors, APT Gallery, London
2020
Hastings Open, Hastings Museum & Art Gallery, Hastings
After the Pandemic - Visions for Radical Renewal, Swarm Dynamics, Are.na
HouseBound: Bathroom, CAS, curated by Susan Francis
2019
SFSA Painting Open, no format Gallery, Deptford
35th Annual Open, Southwark Park Galleries, London
In Reading Gaol by Reading Town, Turbine House, Riverside Museum, Reading
Creekside Open, selected by Sacha Craddock, APT Gallery, London
Triangulations, OHOS, Reading
2018
SFSA Painting Open, Deptford, London
Imago, OHOS, Reading
Diptych, Triptych, Polyptych, PS Mirabel, Manchester
Open Exhibition, NN Contemporary, Northampton
2017
Winter Salon: Power Play, The Concept Space, London
Rye Winter Salon, Rye Creative Centre, Rye, Sussex
SFSA Painting Open, No Format Gallery, London
Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London
As it stands, 100 Years Gallery, London
Small World, PS Mirabel, Manchester
New Prints / Summer Selected by Katherine Bradford, IPC, New York
2016
4th Intl Juried Print, New Grounds Gallery, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Shifting States, Espacio Gallery, London
Innervisions, International Print Center, New York
RA Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London
Spectrum, PS Mirabel, Manchester
2015
MONO II, Espacio Gallery, London
Desire Lines, OHOS, Reading
Colour & Materials, Espacio Gallery, London
TwitterArtExhibit, Moss, Norway
2014
Heaven + Hell, Espacio Gallery, London
Hanging Tough, OHOS, Reading
A Book about Death, Royal Cambrian Society, Wales
Constellation, Reading Museum and Art Gallery
Original Print Fair, Espacio Gallery, London
2013
Strata, Espacio Gallery, London
Emergence, Espacio Gallery, London
2012
Original Print Fair, Espacio Gallery, London
Face to Face, Espacio Gallery, London
Viewpoints, Espacio Gallery, London
Echo, OHOS, Reading2011
Would you like and why not? OHOS, Reading
Take off, New Greenham Arts Centre, Newbury
Send Me A Postcard Darling, The Red Gate Gallery, London
NUIT BLANCHE: Parcel Fever, OHOS, Reading
2009
KAMIEN (Stone) e-mail Art Project, MOKSiR Chelmek, Poland
1994-2000
Numerous shows at the Jelly Leg'd Chicken Gallery, Reading
1988
Berkshire Artists Group Show, Windsor Arts Centre
1987
Four Painters, Darlington Arts Centre
Take Six, Chisenhale Studios, London
1986
Three Painters, Cleveland Gallery, Middlesborough
1983
Sunderland Artists Group Show, Washington Arts Centre
Northern Artists, Gallery Seven, Newcastle
Tyne Tees Northern Open, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle and tour
Whitworth Young Contemporaries, Manchester
1982
Engelsk Grafikk, Gallery F15, Norway
BACKGROUND AND EDUCATION
1960 Born Nuneaton, Warwickshire, United Kingdom
Since 1984 lives and works in Reading, Berkshire
1984-86 University of Reading, MFA (Painting)
1983-84 Studio with Sunderland Artists Group
1980-83 Sunderland Polytechnic, BA (Hons) Fine Art (First Class)
1979-80 Coventry Lanchester Polytechnic
AWARDS
2021
Eaton Fund
Arts Council National Lottery Project Grant (Relations, Stories, Magic)
2020
Arts Council National Lottery Project Grant (Absent Authors)
Arts Council Emergency Response Fund
Arts Council National Lottery Project Grant (Of Geometry & Gods Side by Side)
2019
Oppenheim-John Downes Memorial Trust
Arts Council National Lottery Project Grant (No Eden)
2017
Oppenheim-John Downes Memorial Trust
1983
Purchase prize, Tyne Tees Northern Open
1982
First prize in Magnolia Mouldings National Landscape Competition
CURATION AND PROJECTS
2021 Absent Authors, APT Gallery, London
2016 WordUp! collaboration with Peter Driver for Reading's Year of Culture
COLLECTIONS
Sunderland University
Magnolia Mouldings
Reading University
Angela Flowers Gallery
Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts
And private collections in UK, Europe and China
PUBLICATIONS, TALKS & MEDIA
2022 In conversation with Tess Charnley at Nuneaton Museum
2022 Podcast: Considering Art with Bob Chaundy
2021 Feature in Imagine magazine, vol.1
2021 ‘Housebound’, Chapel Arts Studios, exhibition catalogue
2020 Review of 'Threads: Two Generations of Painters through Time'
2020 Interview with Anna McNay for Studio International
2020 Public talk 'Background and Influences', Friends of Reading Museum
2019. Panel discussion with Dr. Rebecca Johnson, Güler Ates & Kirsty Harris
2019 In conversation with Lucy Cox at Greenham Control Tower
2018 In conversation with Lucy Cox at no format Gallery (live event & film)
2018 Interviewed by Laura Brown for Bloop Magazine
2018 Interviewed by Lucy Cox for Painters Today podcast, episode 7
2018 ‘SOLDIER’ exhibition catalogue
2018 Editorial Team selection for ArtMaze Mag, issue 6, January
2017 Featured image in Discerning Eye catalogue
2016 Talk: ‘The peace that passes all understanding’, OHOS, Reading
2016 Talk: ‘Forms of Exchange: the journey from source to motif’, NGA
2015 ‘Eliza's Entertainments’, images for poetry by Adrian Blamires
2014 Interview on the Palette Pages
2014 ‘Transformations’, a contemporary working of Ovid's Metamorphoses
2014 ‘Heaven + Hell’, catalogue with an essay by Anna McNay
2012 FAD News Q&A
2010 ‘From here on in’ exhibition catalogue, essay by Adrian Blamires
1988 ‘Artist of the Day’, exhibition catalogue, Angela Flowers Gallery
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